Do you get a cold from the change in weather?

[MislaidMyBrain]

I think I sometimes do though I’m more aware of it this time as Worried it might be covid 19. I’ve had a runny nose, a tickly throat and have been a bit sneezy and coughy. Even if it’s just a cold, I’m not sure how I would’ve caught it.

No you get a cold from a virus.

Weather has almost nothing to do with getting a virus (except for being indoor more with others, and drier heated air which affects the mucous membranes and decreases the effectiveness of the natural barriers).

I do know this really but was just trying to dampen my covid fear. Oh well. Hopefully it’s just a cold.

If you get cold, your immune system can be suppressed so it doesn't protect you from lurking viruses - “acute cooling of the body surface causes reflex vasoconstriction in the nose and upper airways, and that this vasoconstrictor response may inhibit respiratory defence and cause the onset of common cold symptoms by converting an asymptomatic subclinical viral infection into a symptomatic clinical infection.” pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12357708/

In less technical language, www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2918661/Chilly-feet-increase-risk-catching-colds-flu-leading-expert-warns.html

It’s a puzzle where these lurking viruses come from - I seem to get symptoms whenever I'm sat in a draught. But it's not covid.

@bodni
Are you a scientist? Did you actually read the full article that you cite in your response?

I am and I did. Let me share the final conclusive paragraph with you...

“In conclusion, the present review proposes a hypothesis to explain the relationship between
acute cooling Of the body surfaces and the common cold and proposes a means of testing the hypothesis.”

This article relies on scientific studies that are, in some cases 300 years old and the majority were conducted before our current understanding of how viruses and the immune system work. There are a lot of unchallenged assumptions.

And in its own conclusion it states that the review (which is a study of the available literature, not a primary investigation in its own right) only managed to come up with a set of hypotheses which now need to be thoroughly tested.

Also, as it doesn’t set out it’s method we have no way of telling how studies were selected (or ignored) for inclusion. Therefore we have no way of knowing if this author simply failed to include any contradictory evidence for the support of their hypotheses or if it simply doesn’t exist.

The author provides zero evidence to indicate the viruses can mutate from sub-clinical to clinical which is central to the hypothesis.

Anyone got any other “evidence”

No, but I sneeze when going from hot to cold or cold to hot.

And sometimes first thing in the morning, when I wake up, if its colder than it has been. But it is always temporary and isn't accompanied by your other symptoms

You may get a type of hayfever at the change of season (I do) and that can seem like a cold.

Hi Greater, no, I’m not a scientist - there’s no need to be so aggressive. There is (of course) a link between people getting chilled and wet and then going down with a cold. I personally get cold symptoms whenever I’m in a draught. The theory I linked to was the best explanation I’ve found so far. So, as a Scientist, have you got a better one? I’d love to understand it.

Apologies for being aggressive, this particularly story just really annoys me. There is plenty of evidence to show that there are many viruses which cause symptoms of the common cold, interestingly corona viruses are one of them. We’re about to go out but i can find plenty of evidence for the virus theory.